Restaurants in Lincolnshire: Winteringham Fields
This month we’re enjoying the talent of James Nicklin and the team in the kitchens of Winteringham Fields as we revisit Lincolnshire’s only Michelin starred restaurant, enjoying an exceptional tasting menu experience with a commitment to quality
Here’s a tip. If you’re going to start work in James Nicklin’s kitchen, make sure you have a pen and paper to hand. “You’ll be amazed how many chefs come into the kitchen without one,” he says.
Of all the kitchen paraphernalia you might expect a chef to be acquainted with – decent knives, battle-scarred pans and such like – James reckons that a pen and paper is essential because, let’s face it, nobody ever stops learning.
Learning and professional development is something James is keen to foster in the kitchen as Head Chef of Winteringham Fields, Lincolnshire’s only Michelin star restaurant. Its reputation is such that many seek to join the team, and positions within it are rare and coveted.
The result is that only the most diligent, keen to learn and hard-working chefs get to work alongside James, and the resulting atmosphere is happy and collegiate, with everyone invested in doing their best to maintain the reputation of the place. James is calm, friendly and (one imagines) a brilliant boss, working alongside Xavier Brett who heads up front of house. It wasn’t always so welcoming though.
Winteringham Fields was established in 1988, and the first time I set foot in those hallowed kitchens its founder, the Swiss-born chef patron Germain Schwab, marched up to me and demanded of the manager ‘who iz zis?!?’ It was quite ferocious, and though he soon warmed up a bit, the impression was of an old-school restauranteur who ruled with an iron fist rather than a wooden spoon.
Since then, many things have changed. For a start, James’s much more constructive management style is necessary to successfully lead a team, and with even village pubs really putting the effort into producing a good dining experience in an ever more challenging market, restaurants at Winteringham Fields’ position in the market have really had to take their dining to the next level.
Changes since the Schwab dynasty include the purchase of Winteringham Fields by Colin and Bex McGurran in 2005 and the addition of more bedrooms rooms in 2016. Winteringham Fields was one of the original ‘restaurants with rooms,’ and reaffirming this its 16 bedrooms ensure diners can retire for the evening after a very satisfying dining experience, for the purpose of cogitating, meditating and rhapsodising.
Other changes include the departure of previous Head Chef Gareth Bartram two years ago, with James stepping up to the pass to lead the team into a new era. The restaurant remains under the ownership of Colin, but having established a brand new restaurant in Antigua, he’s since swapped Scunthorpe for the Caribbean, leaving James in custodianship of Winteringham Fields. Happily, it’s in very safe hands.
Accolades like Winteringham Fields’ Michelin Star (retained ever since Colin purchased the place), or its four AA rosettes (fewer than 5% of UK restaurants have four or five stars; fewer than 50 have four stars and fewer than 20 have five stars), sometimes make a kitchen beholden to accolades, not diners’ satisfaction. That’s not the case here. The satisfaction of customers and ensuring they have a brilliant experience are the only metrics of success with which James is concerned.
The restaurant has a capacity of 30 covers but filling the place each night isn’t the priority. What’s more, with private dining rooms and three intimate lounges throughout the former farmhouse, small groups of diners or couples enjoy as much privacy as they wish… handy in the case of one high profile customer who was due to visit on the evening of our visit.
The main dining room overlooks the restaurant’s terrace and its neat, well-maintained kitchen garden. In recent years, a claustrophobic window between dining room and kitchen has been removed, so now Winteringham Fields offers a genuine open kitchen format enabling diners to see and hear what goes on beyond the pass.
Lunchtime diners can choose from an à la carte menu during weekday service (£69/head), or a lunchtime tasting menu (£85/Wed-Fri, £99/Sat). A tasting menu is the sole means of dining during evening service, at £150/head with optional flight of wine. This is typically six or seven courses in duration with the inclusion of amuse bouche, palette cleansers or pre-desserts, depending on what takes the team’s fancy. The menu doesn’t change wholesale but rather it continues to evolve incrementally throughout the year, enabling James and the team to ensure micro-seasonality.
Everything is made by the team in house from the restaurant’s charcuterie to very good bread – roasted onion plus ale and treacle loaves during our visit. These were served with a whipped, caramelised, cultured butter and a pot of beef dripping ‘mucky fat.’ Evidently, where there’s muck, there’s gold. I could scoff a whole pot of the stuff and an entire loaf at home assuming the perpendicular on the sofa with a decent bottle of wine.
Other highlights of the menu were a tomato dish with curds, nasturtium and consommé, inspired by James’s memories growing heritage tomatoes with his grandfather and enjoying them straight of the vine.
Our turbot was silky, served with a buttermilk foam and an umami N25 caviar, whilst our pork dish utilised a hard-working pulled cheek cut with picked and preserved foraged wild garlic buds.
Pre-dessert was a vibrant lemon pot on the enjoyable side of super-sharp and with homemade honeycomb and yoghurt sorbet. This was followed by a smart take on a traditional trifle with raspberry jelly and white chocolate ganache, caramelised white chocolate tuille and raspberry vinegar gel.
Dining at Winteringham Fields incurs a premium over, say, a quality pub restaurant, but the additional talent, innovation and expense incurred in labour and ingredients, all of which are invested directly in the meal, is more than evident. Relative to the standard of the food itself and the team’s commitment to offering diners something really special, it’s very fairly-priced.
Producing the kind of interesting experience and labour-intensive but fundamentally delicious food for which James and the team are renowned is a labour of love that every diner will appreciate. Dining at Winteringham Fields at your earliest convenience is a superb, and highly-recommended experience.
The Restaurant: “Lincolnshire’s only Michelin starred restaurant, Winteringham Fields offers a unique dining experience that brings the kitchen to your table.”
Opening Hours: Lunchtime Service Wednesday-Saturday 12noon to 2pm. Evening Service Wednesday to Saturday 6.30pm-8pm.
Winteringham Fields: North Lincolnshire, DN15 9ND. Call 01724 733096 or see www.winteringhamfields.co.uk.
See our full feature with more photos in the August edition of Lincolnshire Pride at https://www.pridemagazines.co.uk/lincolnshire/view-magazines?magazine=August-2025